Boko Haram: 11 Million “Out Of School” Children In Northeast Nigeria – UN

Home » Boko Haram: 11 Million “Out Of School” Children In Northeast Nigeria – UN

The UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Mr Gordon Brown, has said that there are about 11 million out-of-school children in northeast Nigeria due to the destructive activities of the Boko Haram terrorists.

Brown, a former British Prime Minister, made this known while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, USA.

He said that his commission was already intervening in the situation.

The UN envoy, who chairs the Commission on Financing Education Opportunity, explained that the commission was giving more funds to help the Nigerian education system move forward.

According to him, the commission and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo are already discussing ways to secure global funds to address the education challenges confronting the northeast.

“We think there are probably around 11 million children that are not in school. We know that the Boko Haram attacks remained a huge problem and the terrain too.

“These have prevented girls, particularly, from going to school and we know that there have been many abductions.

“And they are still tragically many of the girls that were kidnapped from Chibok that have not returned,” Brown said.

“We want every girl to be safe and particularly girls but also boys and girls to be safe when they go to school.

“The Safe Schools Initiative is designed to help fortify the schools and also help the telecommunications between the schools and prevent the attacks.

“This is so people can get advanced warnings and to give people the security that there might be some better protection in case there was an attack.

“So the Safe School Initiative has been something that other countries adopted since Nigeria led the way.

“The Safe Schools Initiative is being implemented in different parts of the world but obviously we need more resources into the Nigerian system and that’s what this new proposal is about.”